New Japan Pro Wrestling is live with opening night of the 26th G1 Climax tournament, from Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center. Here are tonight’s tournament matches:
- IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Naomichi Marufuji
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADA
- Hirooki Goto vs. Bad Luck Fale
- Togi Makabe vs. Tama Tonga
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tomohiro Ishii
JUSHIN LIGER, TIGER MASK, MANABU NAKANISHI & KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, KUSHIDA & TOMOAKI HONMA
Desite being your basic multi-man opener everyone really brought it here for the G1 opening night, as expected. Team KUSHIDA refused to tag in Captain the entire match, which was actually hilarious; them actually booking Captain to match people’s disdain for him might be the only thing to make him enjoyable, ironically. Everyone got their spots in. Tiger Mask hit a big suicide dive into the barricade, and Shibata took Honma’s head off with some huge dropkicks. Captain finally tagged in at the end and they teased him winning a few times, but Nakanishi ended up pinning him with the Hercules Cutter. Fun match. Winners: Liger, Tiger Mask, Nakanishi & Shibata.
SATOSHI KOJIMA & JUICE ROBINSON vs. TORU YANO & KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA
This match was kind of just there, and nobody did much to stand out. Some comedy stuff between Yano and Robinson. Nakajima got a good reaction and looked smooth with what he did, there just wasn’t much there. Winners: Yano & Nakajima.
BULLET CLUB (YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & KENNY OMEGA) vs. YOSHI-HASHI & GEDO
Another match that was just there. Takahashi pinned Gedo with a Dominator. There were some comedy spots throughout and the two G1 guys looked good, but this wasn’t serious, main event mode Omega by any means. This just didn’t feel like it mattered at all. Winners: Omega & Takahashi.
LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (NAITO, EVIL & BUSHI) vs. MICHAEL ELGIN, YUJI NAGATA & DAVID FINLAY
Elgin looked like a total powerhouse here with a lot of heavyweight spots, and did the big fallaway slam + Samoan drop spot on EVIL and BUSHI. It was BUSHI who really looked great though, showing a ton of charisma. There was a great sequence from LIJ where Naito held Finlay for a stiff looking lariat from EVIL, into a Codebreaker from BUSHI. Not a stellar match, but it did a good job of putting over the non-tournament guys. Winners: LIJ.
TOMOHIRO ISHII (0) vs. HIROYOSHI TENZAN (0)
Awesome match. I wasn’t sold on the whole Tenzan’s Last Ride storyline going into the tournament, but if crowds keep reacting like this one did and he keeps putting that much heard into his matches, it’s going to be one of the best things about this year’s G1. The match was slow to start but built to an absolute fever pitch. Ishii gave him everything in his arsenal and Tenzan kept kicking out. Tenzan came back and emptied his own arsenal, including an Anaconda Vice and Anaconda Buster but Ishii kept kicking out. They traded headbutts which were really brutal and uncomfortable and wouldn’t ever happen in the US these days. Tenzan won it with a top rope moonsault as Kojima looked on from ringside cheering him on. He looked so genuinely happy for his friend and the whole thing just told a great story. Winner: Tenzan (2).
TOGI MAKABE (o) vs. TAMA TONGA (0)
Lots of hard-hitting stuff from both guys. Not a bad match but they had some trouble following the intensity of the match before them. Makabe caught him with a spider suplex out of the corner and followed up with a King Kong knee drop for the pin. Winner: Togi Makabe (2).
HIROOKI GOTO (0) vs. BAD LUCK FALE (0)
Fale laid out the announcer during his entrance and bullied Goto around the ringside area for a bit early on in the match. Goto sold a possible knee injury early, but it didn’t look too serious. Goto carried a lot of the match and kicked out of a lot of the big man’s arsenal. He tried for a Final Cut but couldn’t get it, so he choked out Fale and then hit the Final Cut for the pin. Maybe they’re not going with the “Make Fale Look Strong” plan again this year? Winner: Goto (2)
HIROSHI TANAHASHI (0) vs. SANADA (0)
Great match. The first half was just okay, not the MOTY candidate some thought it might be, but the second half built incredibly well and they put on a clinic. Tanahashi’s injured arm played a big part of the story here. SANADA attacked him on the floor and wrapped up the arm in the barricade to re-aggravate the injury. They still brought out some big spots, with Tanahashi even hitting the High Fly Flow to the outside while selling. Very back and forth from there. They traded submissions for a couple very close near-finishes; Tanahashi even sold the Skull End with the fading three-count submission spot, coming back at the last second to get into the ropes. Tana came back with a Slingblade but SANADA countered everything he had, including the High Fly Flow with a cutter out of nowhere, and hit him with two top rope moonsaults and locked in the Skull End a second time for the submission in what may be the upset of the tournament. Winner: Sanada (2).
KAZUCHIKA OKADA (0) vs. NAOMICHI MARUFUJI (0)
If SANADA submitting Tanahashi was unexpected, this was a baseball bat upside the head. Not only did Marufuji pin the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, but he dominated him for the vast majority of this match. He did a similar spot to Okada’s arm as SANADA did to Tanahashi, using the barricade, and everything for the rest of the match was a target towards the injury, which also meant Okada wasn’t able to use his signatures, the Rainmaker and the Tombstone. Marufuji just lit him up with stiff (and stiff is a severe understatement) chops and kicks; every time Okada had an answer for something, Marufuji had one better and took him down time and time again. It wasn’t completed one-sided, as Okada had a few moments, but none of his offense lasted very long and this was just shocking the way an outsider completely put down the top star of New Japan. Great match; much like the Tanahashi/SANADA bout, it took some time to get going, but the second half built up and was excellent. Winner: Marufuji (2).
